MIA...again
Yea...been down that road again...though a lot of it has been just that there wasn't much to say since I have been staying in bed a lot...trying to get the swelling down and to stay down. For about the last 6 months or so I have been fighting really bad swelling in my legs and feet and I was not about to start taking water pills so bed rest was the only solution...and that is where I have been except for maybe 4 hours a day I spent doing the things I needed to do for us or to check email and read you my friends.
It has payed off though, my feet and legs have virtually returned to normal as long as I take breaks during the day and get them up for an hour or so a couple of times a day.
A couple of weeks ago my older brother was looking pretty bad (kinda reminded me of the coloring of mushroom from a can...), and we finally got him to go to the hospital...what do they do...send him back home...sucks when you don't have insurance...but they did give him a few tests, re-hydrated him and he looked better, but he was still having sever pain in the right quadrant of his belly...like me he is stubborn and seldom says anything when in pain, so we knew it wasn't good if he complained of it. Saturday my mom came over to ask me to sit with dad while she took him to the hospital, so off I go and I said how did you finally get him to decide to back to the hospital and she showed me one of dad's urinals, which had maybe a 1/2 inch of urine in it and the urine look more like grape juice.
Took forever for them to get seen and they decided to keep him over night at least and so mom came home late. She went back yesterday morning to see how things were going (she had gotten my younger brother to come over and sit with my dad.) And we get a phone call from her saying he isn't doing good...he suffered a seizure just about the time she got there, his vitals all fell, and so they had to put him on a vent, put in an arterial line and other scary medical sounding things and of course she is scared and crying so I got ready and went over to get my dad and take him to the hospital.
While Jimmy looked better it was still a sight to see someone you love and care for lying on a hospital bed doped up enough to keep them out of it and then a ventilator and all of these other machines hooked up to them... My dad kept worrying about the number of aspirations the machine was set for (14) but they kept reassuring him that Jimmy was still breathing on his own as well...they didn't want to let the machine do all the work (which I think is a good idea) and his O2 level was staying at 100% so he had to be getting enough 'air'. I was pretty wiped when we came back last night, I hadn't worn my leg braces and couldn't take my scooter, so I had to walk unassisted for quite a bit...I won't be doing that again for awhile...
The Neurologist I spoke with out there felt his seizure was a result of carbon dioxide build up in his blood and not the result of something in his brain...which the ct scans showed his brain looked fine later that day. Spoke with my mom just a little while ago...they had gone out first thing this morning to see how things were going and his vitals had dropped again so they called in a surgical team and are going to do exploratory surgery today on him to see if they can find out what is going on...They know something is wrong around his liver/gallbladder but they could not decide what...most of yesterday they kept suctioning blood out of his stomach and finally late last night they stopped getting blood and started getting regular bile which was what they wanted.
So today is spent in a bit of apprehension and reflection...gotta remember to go shopping later...I hope everyone is doing well!
It has payed off though, my feet and legs have virtually returned to normal as long as I take breaks during the day and get them up for an hour or so a couple of times a day.
A couple of weeks ago my older brother was looking pretty bad (kinda reminded me of the coloring of mushroom from a can...), and we finally got him to go to the hospital...what do they do...send him back home...sucks when you don't have insurance...but they did give him a few tests, re-hydrated him and he looked better, but he was still having sever pain in the right quadrant of his belly...like me he is stubborn and seldom says anything when in pain, so we knew it wasn't good if he complained of it. Saturday my mom came over to ask me to sit with dad while she took him to the hospital, so off I go and I said how did you finally get him to decide to back to the hospital and she showed me one of dad's urinals, which had maybe a 1/2 inch of urine in it and the urine look more like grape juice.
Took forever for them to get seen and they decided to keep him over night at least and so mom came home late. She went back yesterday morning to see how things were going (she had gotten my younger brother to come over and sit with my dad.) And we get a phone call from her saying he isn't doing good...he suffered a seizure just about the time she got there, his vitals all fell, and so they had to put him on a vent, put in an arterial line and other scary medical sounding things and of course she is scared and crying so I got ready and went over to get my dad and take him to the hospital.
While Jimmy looked better it was still a sight to see someone you love and care for lying on a hospital bed doped up enough to keep them out of it and then a ventilator and all of these other machines hooked up to them... My dad kept worrying about the number of aspirations the machine was set for (14) but they kept reassuring him that Jimmy was still breathing on his own as well...they didn't want to let the machine do all the work (which I think is a good idea) and his O2 level was staying at 100% so he had to be getting enough 'air'. I was pretty wiped when we came back last night, I hadn't worn my leg braces and couldn't take my scooter, so I had to walk unassisted for quite a bit...I won't be doing that again for awhile...
The Neurologist I spoke with out there felt his seizure was a result of carbon dioxide build up in his blood and not the result of something in his brain...which the ct scans showed his brain looked fine later that day. Spoke with my mom just a little while ago...they had gone out first thing this morning to see how things were going and his vitals had dropped again so they called in a surgical team and are going to do exploratory surgery today on him to see if they can find out what is going on...They know something is wrong around his liver/gallbladder but they could not decide what...most of yesterday they kept suctioning blood out of his stomach and finally late last night they stopped getting blood and started getting regular bile which was what they wanted.
So today is spent in a bit of apprehension and reflection...gotta remember to go shopping later...I hope everyone is doing well!